A conventional beverage supply apparatus may produce a beverage by mixing a syrup and diluting water and then supplying the mixed beverage. This kind of beverage supply apparatus normally may produce and supply multiple types of different beverages.
Specifically, the beverage supply apparatus may include a button that receives an operation to select a beverage to be produced. When the button is depressed, the syrup required to produce the beverage is discharged from among different types of syrups stored in multiple syrup tanks. At the same time, the beverage supply apparatus may discharge diluting water that is mixed with the syrup to produce the beverage.
Patent Document 1 (JP 3947914 B2) describes an example of this kind of beverage supply apparatus. Gas pressure may be applied to a syrup stored in a syrup tank and a solenoid valve positioned in a syrup supply channel may be intermittently opened and closed such that syrup is discharged and diluted with water.
The limited options in terms of beverage flavors, however, may be a problem with the technology described in Patent Document 1. The type of syrup used to produce the beverage may be limited only to a single type. Furthermore, it may be conceivable to mix two types of syrups to provide a greater number of options in terms of beverage flavors. The technology described in Patent Document 1, however, is not based on mixing two types of syrups and there is no indication of how the syrups should be mixed.
For example, it may be difficult to produce a beverage in which the balance between the flavors of two types of syrups can be fully appreciated simply by mixing the two. It therefore would be desirable to develop technology enabling simple production of a beverage in which the balance between the flavors of two types of syrups can be fully appreciated.